I still had my hands on Paige's shoulders.
"Heh, since we're already here, let's take a walk around Cowtech. Paige, I already know it, but maybe you can show the others.
"She got excited. "Come on Carly and Sam, let's go!"
"Freddie, you can leave the camera with my bodyguard and grab it later. You can do your tour as a couple." I spoke
Freddie and Cara smiled and did just that.
Leslie ended up joining us.
"You know that Jake just wants to check if there are any pretty girls around, right?" Carly commented, glancing at Sam and Paige.
Both girls nodded.
"Hey, I'm right here," I said
"But it's been a while (a few days) since we've seen him with anyone (after Pippa). We should help," Paige added.
"Yeah, I feel sorry for him. He seems lonely," Sam said.
"I'm still right here!" I exclaimed indignantly.
---
Pepper and Harvey came back.
"Gordon will be here in a moment. Let's discuss more things since you're around."
I nodded.
Carly, Sam, and Freddie had iCarly filming to do. Cara went with them.
Paige started chatting with Leslie now that she was calmer.
"About the graphene, we can discuss it when Gordon arrives. I wanted to bring up something else," Pepper said.
"Konami sent us a prototype and the beta version of DJ Hero."
Months ago, I remembered a game I used to enjoy a lot. I mostly recall mobile games; I never played LoL, for example, so there's no chance I'd replicate it—at most, I could try to find the company making it.
My initial idea was Guitar Hero, but Konami already had something similar, GuitarFreaks (I don't know why or if Guitar Hero was sued for plagiarism). So we decided to partner with them, starting with DJ Hero (since we already own music IPs), and later we'll release Guitar Hero.
"We created a small subsidiary, JD Games. For now, we bought the website Miniclip from Robert Small for a million dollars, and PopCap for five million. Nothing too major," Pepper said.
"The main thing from PopCap is the Bejeweled IP," I agreed. "PopCap is currently working on Plants vs. Zombies."
It'll be a lite version of the original, since current tech is much worse than when it was actually released. Honestly, I have zero drawing talent. Thus, the art will be different—they sent me a few sketches, and I picked the one that looked closest to what I remembered. (I just gave the general idea about the levels)
"On Miniclip we've already launched World's Hardest Game, 2048, and Flappy Bird. I played them, they were good." I commented
2048 and Flappy Bird were ridiculously easy to remember. As for Hardest Game, I just recall the concept: a square dot trying to dodge obstacles.
All three are mostly being used to drive traffic to the site and secure their IPs early.
"Commercially, the real bets are Plants vs. Zombies and, later, Candy Crush—a game inspired by Bejeweled but with a candy theme," I added.
Hardly the PC game will be as famous as the mobile one.
"Now, talking about bigger numbers," Harvey said, "Anthony and I already negotiated with Ike Perlmutter and Avi Arad. We closed the deal valuing Marvel at $260 million, nearly a 100% premium over the current Nasdaq value of $130 million. With those two, we already have 50% and have acquired 4.9% more, giving us control.
We'll buy more up to 60% and make the tender offer this week," Harvey concluded.
"Great!" I nodded.
An incredibly good bargain I was almost forgetting. 2002 is a turning point for Marvel because of Spider-Man (the Tobey Maguire one—an all-time classic).
There's already a lot of hype around the movie since last year, but not even the most optimistic are expecting the massive success it will become. Consensus projections are around $400–450 million worldwide box office.
Buying 30% of Apple later this year would give us leverage to pressure Jobs into selling Pixar to us (piss off, Disney).
But first, we needed to close the Universal deal. Next year, we could consider Miramax, DreamWorks, Lucasfilm, Pixar...
And I asked Pepper directly about that, "What about Universal?"
"Jessica made some internal contacts. Vivendi is in worse shape than we imagined. They're facing serious debt and cash flow problems," Pepper replied.
"This one would be a little risky to short, since it wouldn't be impossible to find evidence of insider trading," Harvey pointed out.
I nodded. "No need to take that risk."
"But that is a very good thing for us," said Pepper, trying to hide a smile. "Jean-Marie Messier most likely won't remain until year-end. Once a major insolvency risk comes to light, pressure will rise to remove him."
I smirked. "We, as good Samaritans, will appear with a truckload of money, cough, a helping hand."
"The assets would be: Universal Pictures + TV + Theme Parks, Universal Music Group (UMG), Vivendi Universal Games (including Blizzard), and European TV channels.
Initially, I was thinking of grabbing the first package and the European networks, but if we time it right, we might snatch everything for 15 billion," Pepper explained, her eyes glowing.
"Woah, UMG would make us the largest record label in the world—and Blizzard?!"
After that, Pepper and I daydreamed for a while, before Harvey interrupted us.
"Completely unrelated topic," Harvey said, handing me an envelope.
"Uhhh, so you're finally marrying Dana Scott?" I smirked.
"I got an ultimatum," Harvey replied, laughing.
I laughed along. "Even the great Harvey can lose a case. But man, you're lucky. Your future wife and college classmate was the top of your class—and she's amazing and gorgeous."
That's the thing about characters who came from TV shows. They're incredible—and good-looking too. Pepper, Jessica, Harvey, Dana. Only the poor bastard Louis Litt is stuck in the real world.
"Pepper here and Donna Paulsen will be bridesmaids," Harvey said. Pepper smiled.
"Oh, Pepper's secretary, right?"
"Yes, her. Donna is my best friend. She also worked with me, Louis, and Jessica. She became really good friends with Dana too."
"Only after Dana found out Donna was lesbian, huh?" I teased.
Harvey just laughed.
"In the future, who knows—maybe she can be part of our little circle," Harvey said.
I nodded but didn't promise anything. "Well, if she manages to put up with Pepper all day, she must be an amazing person," I joked.
The expected bonk or something flying at me didn't come. Pepper did something different—she showed me a message on her phone.
"Ahh, Peps, you asked that demon to increase my training schedule?!"
A/N: I'm traveling and using a different phone. I forgot to upload more drafts on Webnovel, and it's a hassle to edit from Patreon to here.
So, I'll be on a break until November.